The time has come again when the thermometers, chicken soup, pj’s, and hot tea have been broken out in everyone’s homes.  It’s flu season and this year’s streak of the dreaded flu has hit especially hard.

To some people’s surprise there are a few different kinds of flu; there is the influenza A, which is normally caught between early winter and early spring, influenza B, which can be caught at any time of the year, and H1N1, to name a few.

The flu can be contracted and spread by the inhalation of infected droplets usually from a cough or a sneeze. This year’s flu strand is the H3N2, which has proven to be a particularly aggressive strand, so much so that small clinics around the country have even had minor shortages of vaccines. However, the elderly seem to be the age group with the target on their backs.

Medical professionals believe that the flu might be peaking. But doctors say that they foresee this flu season to continue for another two to three months, but not all the illnesses and deaths are 100% due to the flu. There are a couple of other illnesses that have been passed around this winter, like the stomach virus and whooping cough, which have terrorized the immune systems of many.

There is no way to know for sure how dangerous and deadly this flu will be yet, but this flu has officially made a slight spike above epidemic level. The CDC (Center for Disease Control) doesn’t know exactly how many people have died from the flu, and they can’t really know an exact number for a few reasons.

One, states are not required by law to give out death information when a patient is over 18. Two, there is a certain stage of the flu when its detectable on certain tests, but once past that stage the flu won’t show up on those tests, and three, people may catch the flu and then a secondary illness or infection on top of that which causes all sorts of problems that can potentially end in death.

Common ways to protect ourselves from the flu, and colds in general, include the age-old tips, like drinking lots of fluids, staying rested, and loading up on vitamin C. But some of the less common tips for those suffering from the flu are tucking ice packs under your arm pits to help reduce a high fever and eating licorice to help heal sore throats (but not the candy drug store type there is no real licorice in those get licorice tea bags and drink a few cups a day.). Finally, eating chocolate helps to get rid of excessive coughing, which is the best excuse, if I’ve ever heard one, to get your parents to buy you chocolate or to stop by your local corner store to get yourself a chocolaty treat.